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26 .TH MOUSE 4 1996-02-10 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
28 mouse \- serial mouse interface
30 Serial mice are connected to a serial RS232/V24 dialout line, see
35 The pinout of the usual 9 pin plug as used for serial mice is:
41 3 TX \-12 V, Imax = 10 mA
42 4 DTR +12 V, Imax = 10 mA
43 7 RTS +12 V, Imax = 10 mA
47 This is the specification, in fact 9 V suffices with most mice.
49 The mouse driver can recognize a mouse by dropping RTS to low and raising
51 About 14 ms later the mouse will send 0x4D (\(aqM\(aq) on the data line.
52 After a further 63 ms, a Microsoft-compatible 3-button mouse will send
55 The relative mouse movement is sent as
57 (positive means right)
60 (positive means down).
61 Various mice can operate at different speeds.
62 To select speeds, cycle through the
63 speeds 9600, 4800, 2400, and 1200 bit/s, each time writing the two characters
64 from the table below and waiting 0.1 seconds.
65 The following table shows available speeds and the strings that select them:
76 The first byte of a data packet can be used to synchronization purposes.
77 .SS Microsoft protocol
80 protocol uses 1 start bit, 7 data bits, no parity
81 and one stop bit at the speed of 1200 bits/sec.
82 Data is sent to RxD in 3-byte packets.
91 are set when the left (right)
96 byte d6 d5 d4 d3 d2 d1 d0
97 1 1 lb rb dy7 dy6 dx7 dx6
98 2 0 dx5 dx4 dx3 dx2 dx1 dx0
99 3 0 dy5 dy4 dy3 dy2 dy1 dy0
101 .SS 3-button Microsoft protocol
102 Original Microsoft mice only have two buttons.
103 However, there are some
104 three button mice which also use the Microsoft protocol.
106 releasing the middle button is reported by sending a packet with zero
107 movement and no buttons pressed.
108 (Thus, unlike for the other two buttons, the status of the middle
109 button is not reported in each packet.)
110 .SS Logitech protocol
111 Logitech serial 3-button mice use a different extension of the
112 Microsoft protocol: when the middle button is up, the above 3-byte
114 When the middle button is down a 4-byte packet is
115 sent, where the 4th byte has value 0x20 (or at least has the 0x20
117 In particular, a press of the middle button is reported
118 as 0,0,0,0x20 when no other buttons are down.
119 .SS Mousesystems protocol
122 protocol uses 1 start bit, 8 data bits, no parity
123 and two stop bits at the speed of 1200 bits/sec.
124 Data is sent to RxD in
127 is sent as the sum of the two two's-complement
130 is send as negated sum of the two two's-complement
135 are cleared when the left (middle,
136 right) button is pressed:
140 byte d7 d6 d5 d4 d3 d2 d1 d0
142 2 0 dxa6 dxa5 dxa4 dxa3 dxa2 dxa1 dxa0
143 3 0 dya6 dya5 dya4 dya3 dya2 dya1 dya0
144 4 0 dxb6 dxb5 dxb4 dxb3 dxb2 dxb1 dxb0
145 5 0 dyb6 dyb5 dyb4 dyb3 dyb2 dyb1 dyb0
148 Bytes 4 and 5 describe the change that occurred since bytes 2 and 3
153 protocol is the 3-byte version of the above 5-byte
154 Mousesystems protocol: the last two bytes are not sent.
158 protocol uses 1 start bit, 8 data bits, odd parity and one
159 stop bit at the speed of 1200 bits/sec.
160 Data is sent to RxD in 3-byte
165 are sent as single signed values, the
166 sign bit indicating a negative value.
171 set when the left (middle, right) button is pressed:
175 byte d7 d6 d5 d4 d3 d2 d1 d0
176 1 1 0 0 dxs dys lb mb rb
177 2 0 dx6 dx5 dx4 dx3 dx2 dx1 dx0
178 3 0 dy6 dy5 dy4 dy3 dy2 dy1 dy0
183 A commonly used symlink pointing to a mouse device.